The history of Sikh literature and the structure and significance of individual texts have been examined in Gurinder Singh Mann, The Goindval Pothis: The Earliest Extant Source of the Sikh Canon (1996); Gurinder Singh Mann, The Making of Sikh Scripture (2001); Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (trans.), The Name of My Beloved: Verses of the Sikh Gurus (1995, reissued 2001); Pashaura Singh, The Bhagats of the Guru Granth Sahib: Sikh Self-Definition and the Bhagat Bani (2002); and Pashaura Singh, The Guru Granth Sahib: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (2000, reissued 2003).

History and biography

Useful introductions to Sikh history and biography include W. Owen Cole, Sikhism and Its Indian Context, 1469–1708 (1984); J.S. Grewal, Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1982, reissued 2001); J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (1990), from the series The New Cambridge History of India, part 2, vol. 3 (1987– ); J.S. Grewal and S.S. Bal, Guru Gobind Singh: A Biographical Study (1967); W.H. McLeod, Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion (1968, reissued 1996), and Sikhs of the Khalsa: A History of the Khalsa Rahit (2003, reissued 2005); Fauja Singh, After Ranjit Singh (1982); and Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (2005).

The origins and nature of Sikhism remain complex and controversial subjects that have generated a wide range of studies and polemic. Among the more important studies are N. Gerald Barrier, The Sikhs and Their Literature: A Guide to Tracts, Books, and Periodicals, 1849–1919 (1970); J.S. Grewal, Contesting Interpretations of the Sikh Tradition (1998), and Sikh Ideology, Polity, and Social Order (1996); Dipankar Gupta, The Context of Ethnicity: Sikh Identity in a Comparative Perspective (1996); Doris R. Jakobsh, Relocating Gender in Sikh History: Transformation, Meaning, and Identity (2003); Anshu Malhotra, Gender, Caste, and Religious Identities: Restructuring Class in Colonial Punjab (2002, reissued 2004); W.H. McLeod, Who Is a Sikh? The Problem of Sikh Identity (1989); Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (1994, reissued 1997); and I.J. Singh, Sikhs and Sikhism: A View with a Bias (1994, reissued 1998); and Hardip Singh Syan, Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India (2013).

Beliefs and practices

Various aspects of Sikh belief and practice are explored in Louis E. Fenech, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the “Game of Love” (2000); Mohinder Singh (ed.), Sikh Forms and Symbols (2000); Nripinder Singh, The Sikh Moral Tradition: Ethical Perceptions of the Sikhs in the Late Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Century (1990); and Surindar Singh Kohli, Outlines of Sikh Thought, 2nd rev. ed. (1978).